Title: Ma, Can I keep him?Chapter: 14/?Pairing: B/J, implied E/J; also possibly, inter-species pairing (Hey, we're still not sure of Mikey's parentage)Rating: RWarnings: It is afterall a cannibal fic. Nothing squicky, just allusions to things that might make people uncomfortable. The word 'eviscerate' is used quite a bit.

Disclaimers: I don't own Cowlip or the boys but I own three annoying cats.

Summary: This is crack!fic. It is a cannibal crack!fic. It is tongue-in-cheek black humor. This is the warning within the summary. Debbie is the Sweeney Todd type living in some backwater town (not too far from Pittsburgh) with her mentally disturbed son, Mikey (yes, I stuck to canon) and adopted son, Brian. Justin and Ethan are passing through.

Previous chapters can be found in my memories, here. If you have trouble accessing them there, just use the memories found on my user info page.

Chapter 14

"Breakfast everyone! Get your buns in here before it gets cold!" Debbie screamed up the stairs.

It had been three days since Mikey and Justin's adventure at the swimming hole. The hospital had released Mikey only yesterday after having declared him fit to be released.

Well, at least physically.

Brian and Justin entered the kitchen.

"Look's like you boys are the first ones here," Debbie said while scooping eggs and sausage onto both their plates.

Justin looked down at the sausage, noting that only a few days ago, he had been entirely tired of the constant source of breakfast meat. However, now he found that he was quite getting to like it and looked forward to it at every meal - which was good, since they seemed to eat it at every meal. This particular batch had a wonderful Maple syrup flavor.

"Slow down Sunshine. There's plenty more where that came from," Debbie chuckled as she set about cooking more at the stove. Debbie turned from her place at the range to look at Brian. "Brian, baby, you need to take Justin into town with you today and buy him some jeans and shirts." Debbie turned back around to turn the sausage. She then turned around again and pointed a finger at Brian. "And underwear too!"

Brian groaned. "What the fuck's wrong with the overalls he has now. He doesn't need anything. It's the middle of summer!" Brian shoved a mouthful of sausage into his mouth.

Debbie looked directly at Brian. "Don't you get fucking prissy with me Brian Kinney. You take Sunshine to the store and get him some fucking clothes!" Debbie turned her attention back to Justin. "Sweetie, when does your school year start?"

Brian put his fork down, then picked it back up, wanting to make sure no one noticed that for a brief moment, his walls had come down. He had completely forgotten that the kid would eventually have to go so he could start a new year at his art school.

Justin would move on without him, and Brian would have to get used to the empty nights - and an even emptier bed - when fall came.

"Um," Justin started. "I don't."

Both Debbie and Brian looked at Justin quickly.

"What do you mean?" Brian asked rather harshly. "I mean," he said more calmly, "I saw your ID. Why would you not want to go?"

Debbie took a seat at the table, suddenly more interested in the conversation.

"I, well, it's not that I don't want to go. I do. I really do. It's just that, well, after I defied my dad about wanting to go to art school and not Dartmouth..."

"Oh Sunshine," Debbie chuckled, "that's a hell of a school. You shouldn't feel bad about not being able to get in there."

"No, you don't understand. It wasn't that I couldn't go to Dartmouth - I was accepted - along with quite a few other universities..."

Of course he did, Brian thought, he was a smart little fucker.

"...it's just that I wanted to go to art school. My dad never forgave me for that. Well that, and...um...being gay," Justin whispered the last part.

"What?!" Debbie screeched.

Brian rolled his eyes. Debbie just couldn't seem to accept the fact that not everyone was like her.

In some ways, that was a good thing.

"He paid for my first semester of college. Then he said some bullshit about the stocks being what they were and blah blah blah, anyway, he couldn't afford to send me to art school. Of course," Justin laughed, "he said he could afford to send me to Dartmouth." Justin shook his head.

"So, how did you pay for your second semester?" Brian asked.

"Well, at first, I was partially paid, so I was okay to complete out the year. But in order for me to have started again in the fall, I would have to pay for this year. So I looked for a job that would help me pay for this year but..."

"But what?" Brian asked. The way Justin was being evasive told him he wasn't about to like what he was going to hear.

"I went to work for this guy, okay?" Justin looked at both Brian and Debbie. "He owns Babylon. Well he did, until..."

"You went to work at Babylon?" Brian asked. Although Brian was about as far from the famous Liberty Avenue as you could get, he still knew what Babylon was. He also knew who owned it. "You couldn't have been a bartender or a bouncer," Brian continued, "so what the fuck were you?"

"I was a dancer...a table dancer," Justin whispered.

Brian tried to imagine Justin, his Justin, standing on top of a table and dancing while men put money in his, no doubt, tiny shorts.

Hopefully he was wearing tiny shorts at the time - Brian couldn't think farther than that.

"It was really hard to study, go to school and work there, so I never got any sleep. It was funny, but here I was working, so I could afford to go to school, and I couldn't really go to school," Justin said while shoving another forkful of sausage into his mouth.

Brian put his elbows on the table and then dropped his forehead into his hands. "So what happened?"

"I asked for some time off, from my boss, Sap...I mean Gary Sapperstein..."

Brian knew who the Sap was. Was being the key term.

"...And he said I could have the night off, so I could study for one of my big exams, but I had to go to one of his private parties and well..they kept giving me all these drugs and there was this...this...sling."

Brian was silently wishing he could turn back time so he could take back what he had done and do it all over again...only this time with more relish.

Brian put his hand up. "Did he...did anybody...?"

"Oh...oh no. No. The Sap was trying to get me into the sling but I kicked him in his nuts and got the hell out of there...of course, I was fired after that, but that was probably a good thing," Justin stated, thinking that it had been a good thing to get out of there but that didn't mean he felt great about not having a job anymore where he could afford his tuition.

Brian looked at Justin and then Debbie and then the plate of food they were eating.

They say karma has a funny way of coming back and kicking someone in the ass. As he sat and watched Justin, who looked somewhat uncomfortable relating the story of his almost-rape, Brian had to admit that they were right.

Brian had remembered when Mr. Gary Sapperstein, AKA the Sap, had first come to their little homestead. Seems that the Sap and his friends wanted to have a very private party out in the middle of nowhere.

Too bad they hadn't seen the chain out in the middle of the road out in the middle of nowhere.

There had been two very frightened middle school boys with the party at the time. Brian was not really sure of what the private party entailed, but it couldn't have been good.

Brian had knocked the boys unconscious after making sure he had not been seen by them and then brought them anonymously to Ranger Ben's.

Sap and his men didn't fare as well.

Once everything was said and done and Debbie had heard the moniker for Mr. Sapperstein, she had decided to try something different yet quite fitting in keeping with his name. So in the batch that had been 'the Sap,' she added a blend of real Maple Syrup and brown sugar.

In fact, the same batch that Justin was currently eating.

Justin continued on. "He was a real sleaze though so I won't mind telling you no one really cared when him and his friends turned up missing. There was speculation as to maybe they were messed up with the mob or something. Sounds like him though," Justin said while pushing the last forkful of sausage into his mouth.

Debbie and Brian both looked at Justin and then each other.

"You know what they say," Brian smirked, "about revenge being a dish best served cold."

Debbie laughed, "yeah or in this case, sizzling in a frying pan." Both Debbie and Brian started laughing harder and harder. "I'll get you some more sausage Sunshine."

Justin looked back and forth at both of the people laughing at supposedly something they had found quite amusing. He just didn't get this family's sense of humor sometimes. Justin wondered what the joke was that he was missing.

Before he could think about it any further, Ted and Mikey walked into the kitchen along with Vic.

"Hi baby," Debbie said as she walked over and kissed Mikey on the cheek.

"Hi ma," Mikey said. While he was stretching and yawning, he noticed his mother's new t-shirt.

It said I LOVE MY SPLEENLESS GAY SON.

"MA! YOU GOT A SHIRT MADE?!!?" Mikey screeched.

Everyone stopped to look at the shirt. Vic, Brian and Justin had to try hard not to keep from laughing while Ted was moving his head from side to side as if he was trying to read something that was on a large expanse of something.

Vic laughed, "oh come on, Mikey. At least it's better than the one that says I'M PROUD OF MY GAY SON'S SMALL DICK."